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13 November 2011

Conflict of self project part 2:

It’s time I updated you all on how my Conflict of self project for university is going, in my last post for this project I had made the final clay sculpts for good side and the bad side characters and coloured them on Photoshop.

The next step for me was to put them in to some dramatic character poses. I took around 4 different poses of each character based on a series of life drawings I did.

I then picked my favourite 2 poses of each sculpt and coloured them on Photoshop.

With the designs for the good and the bad guy finalised by my tutors, I started making the bad guy design into a puppet. I started on this puppet first as I knew it would take longer to make, as I would be making it using a technique I have not done before. This can be seen in this YouTube tutorial by the awesome and very talented Nick Hilligoss.

I will be making this puppet using a ball and socket armature( that was very kindly given to me by Tom Brierton) covering it in foam, using spray glue so it won’t peel off, Then cutting down the foam with nail scissors to the size and shape I need.

Once I cut the foam down to the basic shape I needed, I then started building up the body mass, hands and muscles. To do this I used pieces of foam and Copydex glue, i used this as its latex based and I no it will not weaken or dissolve when Its painted over with the liquid latex.

I have being building up this puppet now for around 3 weeks and this is where I am currently up to.

As part of the rushes presentations at university we were asked to make an animatic of the short story line we had come up with, showing the two characters interacting with each other. As i don’t want to give away the whole story here is a small sample clip from my animatic.

With all the extra foam getting added to the puppet i was concerned that it would restrict its movement when animating. To make sure it still had all its movement I did this quick animation test.

I was happy with how the animation test came out and I have decided that i will do a second test once all the foam has been added to the puppet and not yet painted, keep an eye out for them and more making of images in my next conflict of self post.

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About me

Hello there,
I'm a freelance Stop Motion Animator and Puppet maker I have been animating now for 10 years and in that time I have manage to build up my skills, had some amazing experiences and have won a number of awards. I have now graduated from Staffordshire university with a 1st class degree in Stop motion animation. Feel free to have a look around my work, any comments and feedback you may have are very welcome.